The force of 2,000 soldiers, police and civilian advisers will include representation from Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, and has the blessing of the Pacific Islands Forum. But some in the Pacific fear that Australia could use the Solomons as a precedent to push itself as a regional policeman.

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It remains to be seen if Polynesian and Melanesian leaders will regard Mr Howard's advice as patronising.

Among the states with a fewer than 100,000 people is Nauru (population 12,329), where the government cannot afford to pay its employees or run its power plant as revenue from phosphate mined from bird droppings diminishes fast.

Like 10 other states in the 16-member forum, Nauru has an airline, though only one aircraft. So does the Cook Islands (pop 20,8110).

Mr Howard, whose government is the single biggest donor to the Pacific, singled out the cost of running airlines as unsupportable.